PatientSafe Solutions raises $20 million

San Diego  PatientSafe Solutions said Monday it has raised $20 million from a group of investors, enabling it to market its new mobile health care products to hospitals.

The funding includes $13.3 million disclosed in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Dec. 18. Investors were led by Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, along with Camden Partners, TPG Capital and Psilos Group.

Privately held PatientSafe, which has 55 employees, has developed software and hardware that enables handheld devices such as the Apple iPod Touch to share patient information with hospital computers.

PatientSafe's products help nurses and other health care providers enter and retrieve the information they need when they're with a patient, and securely share that information with pharmacists, doctors and others involved in patient care. They also ensure that plans for patient care are properly followed through, said Joe Condurso, the company's chief executive.

One of its units consists of an iPod Touch enclosed in a waterproof case and linked to a battery and other electronic components such as a bar code reader. A similar model is being made for the iPhone 5. These units are medical-grade and go through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's regulatory process, Condurso said.

The system, which cost about $2,500 annually per patient bed, relies on the increasingly prevalence of WiFi in hospitals to transmit information.

The federal government is giving hospitals incentives to move to wholly digitized health information systems, Condurso said, and PatientSafe can help them accomplish that goal. Digitized systems can help reduce errors and cut costs by eliminating duplication of manual data entry, health care observers say.

Commercializing the PatientSafe system is still in its early stages. The biggest customer to date is New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, Condurso said. No hospitals in San Diego have signed up, but Condurso said the company would like to get some local hospitals, in part to take advantage of their proximity to PatientSafe for easier collaboration on product development.

Condurso said San Diego's expertise in health care and high-tech, makes it a good place for the company to grow.

"We're building a brand new category within the health care sector, called smart point-of-care mobile solutions," Condurso said. "We've been able to assemble a very interesting and broad mix of talent here in San Diego, from both the medical device and consumer industries, as well as the health information technology industry."